Now this post may just be fueled by the classic reaction to moving the cheese, but I’m dreading this BL going live. Granted, it’s very pretty, but I’m foreseeing problems regarding both its design and mechanics.
The biggest issue I’m noticing is that the map is that its almost entirely on one type of incline or another, i.e. there is almost not flat ground. While this makes the environment varied, GW2 has a long history of having problems with the interaction between player abilities and vertically changing terrain. For example, I’m predicting that the BL is going to be plagued AOE effects behaving incorrectly due to the fields or players being on different horizontal planes. Hammer stuns will be hit or miss, any arcing projectile will have collision issues when fighting uphill, and combo fields effective range will reduced to single points.
From a design perspective, the terrain itself will present problems. The BL is full of choke points and has very little in the way of open areas. This fact will be a detriment to the map, reducing large fights to siege standoffs. I personally play WvW for mobile engagements with as little siege involvement as possible, but I’m predicting many fights will be similar to a stalemate in inner Hills in the current BL. This sort of gameplay is static and frankly not very fun.
Lastly, there’s also the issue of amount of PVE in this map. As I mentioned before, I play WvW to fight in large groups, not to kill NPCs. Any NPC monsters will just end up clogging up fights, either outright impeding performance or acting as a rally-bot for either side.
I can’t offer many solutions that don’t involve significant redesign or reworking of systems. The BL is fundamentally flawed.